Month: November 2013

While browsing for some ideas and checking out the latest updates on GTD forums (well worth visiting on regular basis) I came across two threads on getting back to GTD basics.

Personally this is a quite timely as I’m getting back on the wagon after a series of significant life changes. To put it simply and with out going into much detail having list made things easier even if you end up not doing half of the things.

Also I’m looking at finding better ways to resurface stuff that’s important so that it stays on radar. I’m reading “Getting Results the Agile Way” and so far I can a see it’s a neat way of maintaining focus on the key selected areas.

For that purpose I’ve been also testing Wunderlist as my primary task manager and so far I find that I works very well. It’s a big shift from more advanced/feature rich setup that I had in Remember the Milk. None the less it appears to do the job quite well.

If you’re interested in understanding how people can work for the pleasure of it, how you can run a company where everyone (60) works remotely and communicates using fairly simple tools like Skype, IRC and internal blog than this is for you.

I have read couple of Scott’s books and really liked them hence the more reason for me to get this latest book “The year with our a pants” where is goes into greater detail about his 18 months gig with Automattic.

My routines have been all over the place as you can see by the lack of posting.

Over the last few week a lot has changed, I moved out of a big city into a smaller town, my commute increased from barely 30 minutes by bike to 50 minutes in a bus.

A lot of new household stuff has been added to my task list which required me to re consider preferred tools.

So I’m kind of in the square one where I’m building up my routines. As I enjoy writing for this site I want make sure that I still have the time for it, that I continue to read and learn and write here on regular basis. Longer commute definitely helps with that.

The first thing I’m noticing is routines build on each other especially in settings where time or settings are limiting. Even though my goal is to get back to regular writing isn’t the place I needed to start. First thing to be re-adjusted was the energy level.

What I start to see that in this new environment a the key to good energy levels is exercise. Bus rides in a bus full of people with little to no fresh air are huge drain. An easy solution to that is a short and brisk walk or couple minutes of body weight exercised. It’s not about dripping sweat and losing breath. 20 min of either will kick start the internal engine and get back on the right track.

For me this is a fairly recently discovery as before all that sorted itself out during my bike commute. Now I need to be more conscious about the exercise routines.

Once I get that on autopilot I will be able to focus on establishing writing routine.

Some of you will wonder if I’m using any crazy techniques to make sure I get that exercise in but I don’t really. I have reminder going off every day to ping me about the workout but that’s it.